246 THE OX AND ITS KINDRED 
turn and trot off sideways with its nose in the air, 
and then break into a heavy gallop, when the rest 
will follow. Old bulls are more inclined to char^^e 
when wounded than herd-animals, and young bulls 
when nearly full-grown are the readiest to resent ill- 
treatment. An old bull when disturbed, and stand- 
ing with its nose upraised, gazing at the intruder, 
with eyes glowing beneath the massive horns, has, 
however, the appearance of a savage and dangerous 
animal, although, in most cases, it is merely ignorant 
and inquisitive. Pursuit causes them to give up this 
bold bearing, and they learn to run off so soon as 
they see a man approaching. No animal is more 
tenacious of life than a buffalo. 
According to Major A. J. Arnold, the dwarf red 
buffalo in Nigeria frequents light open bush-clad 
country, well watered, with small belts of thick bush 
in which it can lie up in the daytime. The belt of 
forest beside the water-ways may be replaced by the 
thick dense bush of the big gullies of the plateau- 
topped hills of Nigeria. As a rule, they associate 
in pairs, with perhaps a calf ; but near Lokoya, at the 
junction of the Niger and the Benue rivers, he came 
across a herd of twenty. They drink just before 
dawn, and then feed slowly either uphill towards the 
dense shady bush in the hillside gullies, or through 
the open scattered bush to some gully, in the re- 
cesses of which they lie up for the day. 
It is added that the width of the interval between 
the basis of the horns diminishes as age increases, 
although it never becomes obliterated. ' 
